Every set we cover, costed three ways, from the commons run to the full master set. Every figure is added up from price guide values read on August 31, 2026, not a number somebody typed into an article two years ago, and they get read again each night.
Read this first
Every card numbered up to the printed total, the ones that read 131/131 and below, is usually a small bill: $20 to $1,035 across these 29 sets. The money is all above that line, in the secret rares. Ascended Heroes is $126 as a base set and $5,564 as a master set. If you have been putting off completing a set because you assumed it ran to thousands, it is worth checking which half you actually want.
Three ways to finish
The word means three different things depending who is saying it, and the gap between them is most of the cost. Pick the one you actually want before you start buying.
$24.25 average per set
Every Common and Uncommon in the numbered set. This is the bulk, so it is nearly free to buy and nearly worthless to sell. A good first target: it is most of the card count and almost none of the money, and it teaches you how a checklist works.
$136 average per set
Every card numbered up to the printed total. This is what most people mean by completing a set, and it is the tier this page sorts by. It includes the rares and the double rares but stops before the secret rares, which is exactly where the price cliff is.
$1,437 average per set
Everything, secret rares included. Several times the base set in every case, and in some sets a single card is more than a quarter of the bill on its own. Worth knowing that most master-set collectors also chase every reverse holo, which is a further tier again and not costed here.
All 29 sets
Sorted by base set, which is the tier most people are asking about. Every figure buys one copy of each card at its cheapest printing, at market, before shipping.
the base set what the secret rares add on top
| Set | Commons run | Base set | Master set | Priciest single card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Bolt2025 | $1370 cards | $2086 cards | $3,418172 cards | Zekrom ex$598, 17% of the master set |
| White Flare2025 | $1570 cards | $2386 cards | $3,038173 cards | Victini$531, 17% of the master set |
| Paldean Fates2024 | $1265 cards | $2691 cards | $2,525245 cards | Mew ex$872, 35% of the master set |
| Chaos Rising2026 | $1664 cards | $3186 cards | $678122 cards | Mega Greninja ex$193, 28% of the master set |
| Shrouded Fable2024 | $1548 cards | $3264 cards | $83199 cards | Persian$70, 8% of the master set |
| Perfect Order2026 | $1668 cards | $3388 cards | $630124 cards | Meowth ex$127, 20% of the master set |
| Pitch Black2026 | $1663 cards | $3584 cards | $851120 cards | Mega Darkrai ex$225, 26% of the master set |
| Phantasmal Flames2025 | $1874 cards | $3794 cards | $1,267130 cards | Mega Charizard X ex$731, 58% of the master set |
| Mega Evolution2025 | $25110 cards | $42132 cards | $1,566188 cards | Mega Lucario ex$255, 16% of the master set |
| Stellar Crown2024 | $24110 cards | $47142 cards | $585175 cards | Squirtle$109, 19% of the master set |
| Paradox Rift2023 | $23135 cards | $49182 cards | $1,157266 cards | Groudon$109, 9% of the master set |
| Scarlet & Violet2023 | $33165 cards | $51198 cards | $751258 cards | Gardevoir ex$66, 9% of the master set |
| Paldea Evolved2023 | $28151 cards | $54193 cards | $1,823279 cards | Magikarp$348, 19% of the master set |
| Journey Together2025 | $35127 cards | $62159 cards | $482190 cards | Lillie's Clefairy ex$101, 21% of the master set |
| Surging Sparks2024 | $31149 cards | $69191 cards | $1,183252 cards | Pikachu ex$258, 22% of the master set |
| Twilight Masquerade2024 | $32131 cards | $75167 cards | $1,253226 cards | Greninja ex$311, 25% of the master set |
| Destined Rivals2025 | $47147 cards | $75182 cards | $1,811244 cards | Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex$498, 27% of the master set |
| Obsidian Flames2023 | $43166 cards | $76197 cards | $478230 cards | Charizard ex$109, 23% of the master set |
| Shining Fates2021 | $531 cards | $8172 cards | $8673 cards | Skyla$11, 13% of the master set |
| Prismatic Evolutions2025 | $1579 cards | $92131 cards | $4,557180 cards | Umbreon ex$1,313, 29% of the master set |
| Temporal Forces2024 | $32126 cards | $94162 cards | $1,198218 cards | Gastly$92, 8% of the master set |
| Celebrations2021 | $00 cards | $10825 cards | $10825 cards | Mew$57, 53% of the master set |
| Ascended Heroes2026 | $45153 cards | $126217 cards | $5,564295 cards | Mega Gengar ex$977, 18% of the master set |
| 1512023 | $65128 cards | $127165 cards | $1,872207 cards | Charizard ex$365, 20% of the master set |
| Pokémon GO2022 | $1642 cards | $18878 cards | $36388 cards | Mewtwo V$56, 16% of the master set |
| Crown Zenith2023 | $1771 cards | $223159 cards | $270160 cards | Pikachu$47, 18% of the master set |
| Rebel Clash2020 | $27101 cards | $280192 cards | $490209 cards | Boss's Orders (Giovanni)$57, 12% of the master set |
| Silver Tempest2022 | $21109 cards | $758195 cards | $953215 cards | Lugia V$491, 52% of the master set |
| Chilling Reign2021 | $1989 cards | $1,035198 cards | $1,887233 cards | Blaziken VMAX$337, 18% of the master set |
The one card problem
In 8 of these 29 sets, a single card is at least a quarter of the entire master-set bill. Completing those sets is not really a grind, it is one purchase with a long tail attached, and it is worth seeing that number before you decide the set is out of reach.
Card scans are TCGdex's, and each one is the card named beside it. TCGdex publishes one scan per card number, so a card counted here at its reverse holo price is still shown in the artwork both printings share.
Two different prices
Every figure above is market price, meaning what copies have actually been selling for. There is a second number worth knowing: the cheapest copy listed right now. On the cards that make up a base set those two are miles apart, and on the cards that make up a master set they are almost the same.
The reason is that a three cent common's cheapest copy is a penny, while a $977 chase card's cheapest copy is close to what it sells for. So the money in a base set is not really in the cards, it is in getting 138 of them into one envelope. Pitch Black is the extreme case: $35 at market against $3 in cheapest listings, a 12.6x gap.
We do not publish the cheapest-listing total as a set price, because it is not one. Those are single listings from 138 different sellers in unstated condition, so nobody can actually buy a set at that number. It is here to show you where the real cost sits, which is postage and patience rather than the cards.
Prices are pricecharting.com's price guide value for an ungraded copy, read August 31, 2026. A guide value is computed across the sales PriceCharting tracks, which is a wider set of venues than any one marketplace. 2 cards of the 5,396 priced here are not listed by PriceCharting and keep their TCGplayer market price via TCGdex instead. The cheapest-listing figures on this page are a different measurement from a different source: they are the lowest live TCGplayer listing via TCGdex, which is one seller's asking price rather than a guide value. Card counts are the published checklists. Totals are computed from those two things and nothing else: no estimates, no rounding up to a nicer number. No affiliate links, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy anything.
Buying the set one pack at a time instead? Pack prices by set is what a single pack costs today and Pokemon MSRP is what it is supposed to cost. The cards doing most of the damage to these totals are in the 100 most valuable raw cards, and is it worth grading? covers what happens to a chase card after you own it.
It depends enormously on the set. Across the 29 sets on this page the base set ranges from $20 for Black Bolt to $1,035 for Chilling Reign, buying every card as a single at the cheapest printing and before shipping. The master set, which adds the secret rares, is several times more: Ascended Heroes is $5,564.
Singles, almost always, and it is not close. A base set here averages $136 bought as singles. Opening enough packs to see every card in a set costs many times that, because packs repeat commons long before they finish the checklist. Packs are for the fun of opening them; singles are for finishing a set.
The base set is every card numbered up to the printed total, so a card that reads 131/131 is the last one. A master set adds everything numbered above that total, which is where the secret rares and most of the expensive chase cards live. That is why the two numbers are so far apart: in Phantasmal Flames a single card is 58% of the whole master-set bill.